Goerne’s Encore Rises Above his Program

Baritone Matthias Goerne (photograph by Caroline de Bon, courtesy of SFP)

Last night baritone Matthias Goerne returned to Herbst Theatre to present the final program in the San Francisco Performances (SFP) 2021–2022 Art of Song Series. This was Goerne’s eighth SFP appearance; and his performances in the Veterans Building also included his serving as an “inaugural artist,” giving the first public performance to take place in the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater in the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera in March of 2016. For last night’s recital, Goerne was accompanied by Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho, making his second SFP appearance, following his debut as a solo recitalist in the 2018–2019 Piano Series.

An unofficial casual scan of the audience suggested that more may have shown up for Cho than for Goerne. Nevertheless, this was one of the most attentive audiences that I have encountered in Herbst. My only regret was how little there was to attract and hold attention. The duration of the program was about 75 minutes, performed without an intermission. Goerne made the bold decision to begin with a selection of eight songs by Hans Pfitzner. This was followed by Richard Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, settings of five poems written by Mathilde Wesendonck. The program then concluded with a selection of five songs by Richard Strauss.

This was a program that looked particularly impressive on paper. As I had written in the preview article for this recital, Naxos had recently completed its project to record all of the songs that Pfitzner had composed, making the opportunity to listen to his music in recital particularly timely. Sadly, there was little convincing in Goerne’s effort to give expressive accounts of the songs he had selected, each based on a poem in German by a different author.

The Wagner selection was one of those rare instances in which he composed for just voice and piano. Two of the songs tend to receive more attention, since Wagner explicitly identified them as studies in preparation for his Tristan und Isolde opera. However, “work-in-progress” does not necessarily make for compelling recital material; and Cho seemed out of his depth in the Wagner repertoire, even when the music had been written explicitly for the piano. Equally awkward was the final Strauss selection, “Im Abendrot” (at sunset), one of the Four Last Songs originally composed for soprano and orchestra. This particular song has an extended instrumental epilog, which reflects back on Strauss’ “Death and Transfiguration” tone poem; and Cho never managed to capture the spirit of that music through his solo piano skills.

That left the encore selection. “Bist du bei mir” (if you are with me) was composed for Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel’s opera Diomedes. However, it is best known because Johann Sebastian Bach copied it into the 1725 portion of his Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. While the accompaniment to the vocal line is not particularly sophisticated, Cho was clearly (finally?) in his comfort zone with Bach’s arrangement; and there was a sincerity in Goerne’s delivery that was far more compelling than his approaches to Strauss, Wagner, and Pfitzner.